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almost like a father to us. He was the
only one who treated me with compassion and earnestly worried about
my crises. He never thought I was crazy or manipulative. It was too
bad that I’d had so little time with him before they transferred
him to another presbytery on the eve of his “retirement.” I heard
about his death shortly thereafter. I suspected that he was ill
during the time he was running the orphanage and for that reason he
was “transferred” before he died, so as not to upset the
orphans.
    The Executive Council appointed Ms. Winfield to
take his place. That proved to be a drastic change in the
functioning of the house—for the worse! It wasn’t that she had no
good will or good intentions, but her methods were inadequate to
deal with needy children. She would have been more well-suited for
a position in a reformatory for juvenile offenders. But we were not criminals, we were
abandoned children. Most of us had no malice and knew only two
kinds of lives—the rural existence we’d lived before we came to the
orphanage and the fantasy lives we created from watching
television.
    “ Reverend provided an excellent
service to the community,” she said without going into the merit of
my comment. She used a tone so blatantly cold it belied her lack of
admiration for her predecessor. This became clear when she said,
“He should have been a little more firm with some children.” She
knew very well that was not exactly the situation. As always, she
was distorting the facts to avoid recognizing her own
ineptitude.
    The Presbyterian Orphanage, an initiative of
Reverend Merritt, took in boys and girls from broken homes whose
parents were unemployed because of economic hardship, in many cases
rendering them “rural homeless.” Some kids went back home after a
few weeks, as soon as their parents found work, but those who were
victims of domestic violence stayed and became candidates for
adoption.
    The orphanage was located in Coos County, a region
where the incidence of frequent unemployment was severe. Reverend
Merritt understood that economics seriously affect family
relationships and he was never one to deny shelter to a child whose
father or mother temporarily left town to find work elsewhere. In
those same circumstances, Mrs. Winfield would have denounced the
parents to the authorities, claiming they’d abandoned their
children. Even though many orphanages adopted a position similar to
Reverent Merritt’s in their communities, Mrs. Winfield was strongly
against his policy.
    Because he was a well-respected person, Reverend
Merritt mobilized the community in favor of the children, but now
he was gone and without his commitment and vigor, life became much
more difficult for us.
    * * *
    Although the orphanage was tied to the Presbyterian
Church and received some assistance from the county, private
donations were really the mainstay for the institution and they
were decreasing dramatically, year after year, especially after the
Wausau Paper Mill closed its doors.
    The Wausau Paper Mill was located in Groveton, a
small community near Dailey’s Crossing and Stark. The impact of its
closure on the local labor market was enough to significantly
disrupt the budget of many families who depended directly or
indirectly on its operation. Thus, if the unemployment rate rose
among the most experienced workers, it went even higher for those
people who had lesser qualifications. The young people had no
choice but to leave the area to try their luck in Berlin or
Lancaster. Many people commented that the best opportunities were
on the coast and in the Merrimack Valley.
    In the past few weeks, the employment situation
began to worry me because I too would join the ranks of the
unqualified unemployed.
    As if reading my thoughts, Mrs. Winfield said,
“The nearest Community College offers good technical courses, but
since it’s out of the question for you, mainly due to your
financial situation, I’d advise you to go back to